The Arabian Nights

I’ve had a little Signet paperback edition of this book for years, read it more than once, it’s great. But this one time I was in Big Bookstore and I spotted one of this fants–pancy edition; hardcover, with gilded page edges and built–in ribbon bookmark, nicely done illustrations, pretty much all the bells and whistles a book can have.

Then I put it on my shelf and ignored it for years.

Well I finally read it. In this translation the language sounds more Olde Schoole: a lot of ‘quoth’ and ‘withal’ and so on. Not for nothing, it gets to be a bit much. They also left in a larger amount of the poetry that (so I have read) is peppered all through the original. But there’s only so much poetry a body can take so I tended to show more gloss over those parts. A lot of the same stories in my little paperback are included, particularly the more famous ones: Ali Baba, Aladdin, the Enchanted Horse, Sinbad the Sailor, and so on. But there were some in this version that weren’t in my paperback (and vice versa), like the king who dresses up in “regular” clothes and sneaks into the city at night in search of adventure, the princess who puts on armor and goes to rescue her brothers like a boss, all kinds of crazy fun stuff.

I’m still undecided on which volume I prefer. On the one hand, there’s greater portability. On the other, nicer illustrations. Plus they have different stories in which is the part that makes it so hard to choose. Full disclosure: I did notice a typo or two in the hardcover. But again, pretty pictures! So for now...I’m keeping them both. show less

This abridged edition of the Arabian Nights by Burton has a number of entertaining but simple stories. The use of language is very enjoyable and I have to wonder how much of the original is lost in translation. It is worth noting that many of the stories in this edition are very non-PC to modern sensibilities. For example, a common theme seems to be woman cheating on their husbands with black men who are depicted in a less than flattering light (arriving / departing via climbing trees, etc). I found it interesting that in one of the stories, Sindbad shows no compunction in murdering those who fall into the tomb he is trapped in in order to obtain supplies to survive a few more days. A more modern story would probably feel obligated to show more show some remorse or to justify the protagonist's actions. show less

For those 2 people who don't know, The Arabian Nights is sort of a collection of short stories told in Arabia (which seems to include India and parts of China) waaaaaay back in the day. The framework of the story is about a sultan who caught his wife cheating on him. After he has her killed, he decides to take out his revenge on the entire sex, so he marries a different wife every day and has her killed the next morning. Scheherazade is the Grand Vizier's beautiful, intelligent daughter. She realizes that this can't go on, so she comes up with a plan. She asks to be the next wife of the sultan, and she starts telling him a story on their wedding night. But buried within that story is another story. The sultan is so intrigued by the show more story that he decides to let her live so he can find out how the story ends. She keeps stringing him along like this, theoretically for 1000 nights, until he relents and gives her a full pardon and takes her for his real wife. But that's only a very small part of the book. The biggest part of the book is the stories Scheherazade tells the sultan. Included are Aladdin, Ali Baba, Sinbad, and others that we've probably all heard in one form or another.

I just picked this up because I wanted to see what it was all about. This version was very readable. It was interesting to see a slice of Arabian life. I would catch myself thinking, "They treat women so badly over there" and then I would remember that when these stories were first told, women were treated badly pretty much everywhere. But then there would be some stories where the women had surprising freedom and I would catch myself wondering where things started going bad. I can't say that I know enough about the culture to comment on what's changed and what hasn't, but these stories do give you a little idea of what life is/was like in the Middle East and where they're coming from. And in these times, a little understanding can only be a good thing. show less

I had a hard time getting into this book at first but as I got more use to it I really started to enjoy it. Arabian Nights is short stories while a longer story is happening that is kinda forgotten after the beginning until brought back up again at the end. Some of the stories felt repetitive, dealing with the same things, events, and places but it got better and more unique as I continued. The only story I truly disliked was the last short story, just didn't have a good flow and I had no idea what was going on. Would of liked some more build up on the main story going on between the King who was killing women until the one telling the stories came, that would of been interesting to do a chapter on them here and there between the show more different stories just to keep readers reminded rather than spill it all in the end. show less